Irish editor receives death threat in post

The editor of a leading Belfast newspaper, Robin Livingstone, has received a death threat. His name, address and car registration number were on paper wrapped around a bullet, sent to the offices of UTV. Similar threats, emanating from loyalist paramilitaries identified as Red Hand Defenders, were sent to several Sinn Fein members, including the party's media spokesman Richard McAuley.

Livingstone edits the Andersonstown News, a paper that circulates in West Belfast. It is owned by the Belfast Media Group, which also publishes titles that sell right across the city, to people of both traditions. The papers have recently carried stories about the continuing problems caused by loyalist gangs and drug-dealers.

Livingstone says: "The threat is a clear attempt to muzzle the papers and out hard-hitting, but fair, coverage of the iron grip which loyalist paramilitaries still hold over frightened Unionist communities. It is ironic that this threat should have coincided with the Belfast Media Group hosting a luncheon at Stormont for the top 50 businesses of Belfast, a sign of the way in which we are pressing ahead towards a new era despite dinosaurs like this.

The group's publisher, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has called on his blog for Unionist politicians to condemn what he calls an "attack on free speech." Thus far, no Unionist has spoken up.

The NUJ's general secretary Jeremy Dear issued a statement calling for police action. He said: "It is vital the PSNI act to protect those under threat and that politicians from all parties deliver a clear message in defence of media freedom and the right of journalists to work free from such threats."

Dear will have in mind the fact that the only journalist to be murdered in the north of Ireland during the past 40 years, Martin O'Hagan, was shot by loyalists after receiving a string of threats. O'Hagan, who wrote repeatedly in the Sunday World about criminal activities by paramilitaries, was gunned down near his home in Lurgan in September 2001 by members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

As Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford points out in his blog, the police - and his colleagues - know the names of the eight men responsible for O'Hagan's killing. Journalists believe the men have never been charged because some were police or army informants. But the Northern Ireland police ombudsman is reviewing the original investigation, so there may yet be some progress.